Wednesday, 26 March 2025

Sigmas With Trump Rizzlers With Putin - comics by kids

World Book Day/Week/Month rolls on, spilling into more schools, making this a record-breaking month for me selling books in schools (or anywhere for that matter). As for the kids and the comic cover titles they come up with, there's no drop in quality, as you can see.


Fleetwood in Lancashire involved what should have been a three and a half hour drive up turning into an eight hour drive, so thank heavens it was worth it. Splendid work by the kids, and a bold stab at spelling strawberry by one of the younger ones there. It's been a while since a slightly unintelligible gibberish title made it through the rigorous selection process, so I'm glad this one did.


Underley Gardens in Carnforth was blissfully close the next day, and the drive home went smoothly. It's a special school, so you might think the kids would struggle with the class, but far from it. They handled me marvellously. Though I must remember, the selection process for the title, where they vote for their favourite in a knockout elimination process, is easier for some kids than others, and I may have to find another way of doing it for classes who, shall we say, may include pupils that don't feel at their cheeriest when their title's not chosen. Read the room, Kev. Read the room.


Ashton Keynes in Wiltshire was a return booking where I'd had to wait a couple of years for them to grow a new school-full before they could have me back. Two great titles from these groups, and the kids bought 19 copies of Richard The Third, for which many thanks.

The celebrities these six groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Mr Beast, Ice Spice (a rapper, I'm told), Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Zendaya.

My Books And Where To Find Them...
Richard 
The Third
Findlay 
Macbeth
Prince of 
Denmark Street
Midsummer Night's 
Dream Team
Shakespeare
Omnibus

Comic Tales
From The Bible

Joseph, Ruth
& Other Stories

Space
Elain






Monday, 24 March 2025

Hamlet's new title, redesigned books


Prince Of Denmark Street's just had its third cover redesign, because it's worth it. I realised, standing behind my table at recent events, that I'm talking about my books and pointing at them and, on more than one occasion, people have asked which one's the Hamlet. Because, possibly, I went too clever clever in naming my book simply Prince Of Denmark Street.

So now, following on from the 2023 redesign, where I added the Shakespeare Graphic Novel collection heading, I've changed things once more. The book now has Hamlet in the title. Is it too cluttered? I don't know, I'll have to let it bed in for a while.

Here are the three stages it's been through over the years...


Oh dammit. Now I'm looking at that first cover design and thinking that's my favourite. It certainly is the coolest, simplest design, and it delivers the message I first intended. But does it sell enough books? Or do I do myself a favour by saying it's about Hamlet and it's adapted from Shakespeare? Who can say?

I've also this week remade the D2D version of Findlay Macbeth, which you'll remember had under-sized contents which looked so wrong I sold the books at a discount. And I've redesigned Midsummer Night Dream Team's cover on D2D so it has the new logo, and I've shrunk the Shakespeare logo at the same time.


Yep, definite improvement, I'm not doubting that one.

My Books And Where To Find Them...
Richard 
The Third
Findlay 
Macbeth
Prince of 
Denmark Street
Midsummer Night's 
Dream Team
Shakespeare
Omnibus

Comic Tales
From The Bible

Joseph, Ruth
& Other Stories

Space
Elain






Monday, 17 March 2025

Richard The Third - finishing that colour edition

Having taken a few weeks off while I got busy with a billion trillion visits to schools doing my classes, I'm now back at the desk finishing off the colouring of Richard The Third, ready to get the full colour edition out and printed and on sale.

Today I coloured up to page 131, including the iconic "Kingdom For A Horse" pages. Most satisfying. You'll find my blog worksheet for the rest of the pages in the book here.

As for progress towards an actual finished book, continue to watch this space


Tues March 18th: Completed the colouring, uploaded and published the book on Lulu. Publishing to to D2D is proving harder as I think they struggle with big colour books. (I am remembering Tales From The Bible has never finished uploading to D2D and has only ever been up there in ebook form).

I've ordered my first half dozen copies from Lulu and, if they look okay, I can get them for just under £7 a copy (it'll vary depending on discounts). So I can sell it for £10.99 and make the same profit as the black and white edition. Let us see if this finds buyers over the summer.

Richard The Third Colour Edition is available for you to buy now direct from Lulu. Their price is £16.97. (All going well you'll be able to get them chepaer, and signed by me, very soon. But if you want to be the first with a copy in your hand - go for it!)


Things it would have been great to have been told in advance: D2D doesn't do colour.

This won't affect most of you, but if you're trying to publish graphic novels using D2D Print, after two hours of struggling to upload my latest (Richard The Third, Colour Edition) I finally get this pop up on my screen. So now I know.

Richard The Third Colour Edition, printed by Lulu then, will be on sale wherever you see me and my books. Direct from Lulu now, or from me by the end of the month.

My Books And Where To Find Them...
Richard 
The Third
Findlay 
Macbeth
Prince of 
Denmark Street
Midsummer Night's 
Dream Team
Shakespeare
Omnibus

Comic Tales
From The Bible

Joseph, Ruth
& Other Stories

Space
Elain








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